


What Happens Next

by SerialObsessor (ibelieveinturtles)



Series: It Could Become a Saga [3]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, Slime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 03:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7298605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ibelieveinturtles/pseuds/SerialObsessor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Owen gets left behind at the slime factory</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Happens Next

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the TWWC Challenge #3:
> 
> Must include the words Janet, dare, meat, kiss and stopwatch

Owen watched the SUV disappear around the corner. Ianto had been dead set against him coming anywhere near the vehicle in his current state of day-glo pink stickiness and had informed him in no uncertain terms that he would have to wait until Ianto got back to the hub and made other arrangements for his transportation. 

Deciding that there was no point standing around waiting Owen decided to go back into the slime factory and have a bit more of a look around. Minutes later he was standing on the catwalk above the vat he had ventured into and grudgingly admired its bright, shiny, sparkly pinkness. Looking around he noticed that marching off into the gloom of the factory there were several other vats lined up behind the pink one, and after a quick search he was climbing a ladder to the next catwalk and wandering along the long row of vats.

These ones were all full of slime just as the first one was, but devoid of the bright iridescence that now made the first one stand out so obviously. There were more colours too – blue, green, yellow… even a purple one, and right at the back, a black one that seemed to swallow all the light that managed to find its way this far back into the factory.

“Hmm,” Owen pondered to himself, “I wonder if they’ll all do the same thing the pink one did? Maybe if I chuck something into one of them.”

He retraced his steps to the exit, and after looking around for a short while he found a couple of fist sized rocks and an old tin of paint. He took them back into the factory and after choosing a vat, tossed in the first rock. He watched for a minute but nothing happened so he tossed in the next rock. As it slowly sank to the bottom of the tank he noticed that there was now a faint glow where the first rock had gone in.

“Damn,” he muttered to himself, “wish I had Ianto’s stopwatch so I could time this properly. I think I need to get some samples of this stuff.”

After several minutes of wandering up and down the catwalk Owen spotted a door in the gloom and after a brief struggle with the handle, opened the door to discover a small office with another door at the other end leading into more offices. After a quick search he found a cupboard with a small collection of screw top containers that would suit his purpose perfectly.

“Excuse me, who are you and what are you doing in my office?”

Owen jerked up, almost falling over with surprise. He quickly regained his balance, placed the containers on the nearest flat surface and pulled out his rather soggy id card.

“Dr Owen Harper, Torchwood. And you are..?”

“Janet Weivele, assistant manager of the Super Slime factory.” She replied with a straight face. She nodded at his dishevelled appearance. “Have an accident?” she queried.

“Er, yeah, a slight mishap with some car keys.” He said as he rubbed at his forehead and dragged his arm over his head in a small display of embarrassment. 

Janet shook her head as she tried to hide a smile. “It’s terrible stuff to get off,” she said as she walked over to a desk and rummaged around in a drawer. “but we have found one or two things that do a reasonable job. Now, where did I put that key? Ah, here we are. Come on then, we’ll see if we can get you cleaned up a bit shall we?”

Owen followed her down a passageway to a small kitchen. Janet paused briefly to get something out of the fridge, and then pointed down the hallway to where a shower was. As he walked passed she handed him the small container she’d taken out of the fridge.

“What’s this?” he asked as he peered into it.

“Mince meat.” She replied.

“What?!” Owen looked at her with an incredulous expression on his face. “What am I supposed to do with this?” he demanded.

Janet sighed, “I’m really sorry, but it’s the best thing we’ve found for getting the slime off. Just add a bit of water and rub it all over yourself. There’s a big container of soap in the shower to use afterwards.”

She turned and headed back towards the office, then paused and turned back again, “Um… it won’t do anything for the colour though. Sorry.” She grimaced. “We haven’t found anything that works on that yet.” She shrugged her shoulders as Owen continued to stare flabbergasted at her retreating back.

~x~x~

Half an hour later Owen stepped out of the bathroom, clean and slime free again. Janet had supplied him with a pair of paper overalls to change into and with a grimace of dislike he put them on and wandered back out to the office.

Janet looked up as he came into the small room. “So Dr Owen Harper, Torchwood, now I get to ask what you were doing in our factory? I could have you charged with trespassing you know.”

”Actually you can’t, we were investigating a complaint and Torchwood has the authority to do whatever it needs to in order to… well, in order to do what it does.” Owen replied cockily as he leaned against the desk. “Anyway, what on earth are you putting into that stuff to make it do… this!” he gestured violently at his colourful body. “And how long am I gonna look like this anyway?”

Janet looked at him warily and then sighed. “It usually wears off in a couple of weeks. No one’s ever gotten that much on themselves before though! Usually it’s just a couple of little splashes on a hand or a shirt. Incidentally, the colour comes out of fabrics remarkably easily.” She pondered for a moment and then resumed her explanation, “I have no idea what’s in it, all I’m really in charge of is distribution. All I know is that there’s a small storeroom up the other end of the factory floor where the dyes are kept, and it’s off limits to everyone except the owner and the manager.”

“Well I want samples from each one of those vats. And from the storeroom if you can manage it.” Owen pushed himself away from the desk and walked towards the door. As he went to open it he paused for a moment, and then looked back at the assistant manager. “Do they all do the same thing? I mean, with the sparkles and the shimmering and everything?” he asked curiously.

“Oh yes, it happens with all of them, and they all have the same … stain … to them too. The pink vat will start to fade shortly and in an hour or so you’ll never know it was disturbed.”

”So any disturbance affects it?” Owen asked peculiarly. “And they all stain?”

“To different degrees, yes they all stain, and anything that lands in the tank will create a… trace.” Janet nodded towards the pink vat, “I’ve never seen one that spectacular before though. You really must have stirred it up to make it do that.” She smiled in amazement as she looked over at the luminescent lake of pink slime, then she noticed the purple tank. “Oh, I see you were experimenting.” she said under her breath. Owen could now see clearly the two trails of disturbance left by the rocks he had thrown into the vat of purple slime.

“Anyway,” she shook herself, “lets get you those samples shall we? I mean, who am I to stand in the way of Torchwood?” she said with a wink.

Ten minutes later Owen had samples of all six slimes safely stored away in tightly sealed containers and was ready to make his way back to the hub. Unfortunately even his lockpicking abilities had been unable to get past the storeroom door, so he hadn’t been able to gain access to the dyes that were being used in the slime.

There were trails of disturbance in all six vats where the samples had been taken from, and the samples themselves were glistening and sparkling in their containers.

“You be careful with those,” Janet reminded him again as she secured them into a carry case for him. “Once the glow fades they look very ordinary… one of our cleaners mistook a sample for hand soap one afternoon and everyone had green hands for a fortnight afterwards!”

“Really?” Owen replied with a thoughtful look on his face. “I bet that was hard to explain to people.”

“Well, it was a fairly cold two weeks so I was able to wear gloves most of the time.” Janet admitted, “but I was more grateful that I hadn’t washed my face with it like one of the office temps had.”

Owen grinned. “I dare say you were extremely thankful for that one! I promise I will be very careful with them.”

“Good. Well, I’ll be off then, I’ll let you know if I can get into the storeroom for samples of the pure dyes.”

Owen called out his thanks as he descended the stairs to the exit, and went outside to wait for whatever transport Ianto had arranged. Whilst he waited he carefully pulled out one of the samples from the bag and examined it carefully. It was already starting to lose the more translucent qualities it had gained from the small disturbance needed to collect it, and Owen smiled smugly to himself as he considered the possibilities.

“You little ripper,” he said to himself as he gave the jar a small kiss, “now we’ll have some fun.”

~x~x~

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the Torchwood Weekly Writing Challenge at http://torchwoodaustralia.com/forum under the name Obsessed, in 2008.
> 
> All the fics I'll be putting up are also on FanFiction.net but are no longer archived at the TWA.


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